SJTF Fact: Letters from Tilden’s supporters began to pour in immediately following the announcement that the election committee chose Hayes and many of the letters were from well known Americans. The following letter was from an important, if not well known New Yorker, Howard Potter:

My Dear Mr. Tilden,—I do not doubt that you are overwhelmed with letters just now from your many friends; but I cannot refrain from adding one to the number, to express my intense disappointment that you are not to-day the ‘de facto’ as you truly are the ‘de jure’ President of our country. I did believe that the justices of the Supreme Court would, in a case of such vital interest, rise high above all party trammels, carefully ascertain the facts of the case, administer the law with equity and consistency, and hold to the doctrine that fraud must vitiate the acts it was employed to accomplish. I am deeply grieved to find that these justices can, after all, be mere politicians—no better than the least patriotic of the tribe. I regret sincerely that your labor of the last four months has met with such a result, but my confidence in your patriotism is such that I am very sure that, so far as personal considerations are concerned, you will feel the disappointment far less than your friends do for you.